This invention relates to scaffolding, and more particularly to an interconnected scaffolding platform comprising staging sections which are butted together in a coplanar arrangement.
Elongated staging sections are typically utilized in various types of scaffolding systems. Typically, the staging sections include elongated planks of wood or steel with side walls. The staging sections are typically placed across support arms and provide a catwalk for construction or repairman to stand.
One typical usage of such staging sections is in connection with installation of siding on a building. Generally, elongated poles will be placed in spaced arrangement from the wall of the building to be sided. The poles will be supported by braces. Pump jacks are then placed on the poles. The pump jacks generally include an extended support arm. The elongated staging sections are then placed across a pair of spaced apart support arms so as to position the staging section parallel to the wall. The construction workers can then stand on the staging sections and install the siding.
In the arrangement described, the workers can also manipulate the pump jack while standing on the staging so as to move the pump jack up the poles thereby raising the level of the elongated staging along the wall to be sided.
It is frequently necessary to provide more than one elongated staging section. Since the staging sections come with a fixed length, numerous such sections are utilized and are longitudinally placed so as to form a continuous catwalk along which the workers can move during installation of the siding.
Normally, each staging section terminates in a conventional end arrangement. Such arrangement can include rounded edges to avoid cutting of the workers and could also include a transverse pole handle to facilitate grasping of the staging section and moving it.
The problem, however, is to place two such elongated sections longitudinally adjacent to each other. Typically, one staging section is placed across the spaced apart support arms and is held in a planar arrangement parallel to the ground surface. When another section is desired to be extended longitudinally therefrom, the next adjacent section is placed so that its end overlies the end of the first section and longitudinally extends therefrom. As a result, there will be a double layer of the staging sections at the support arms.
Having two sections one on top of the other, is a hazardous condition. The sections can slide from one another, the workers can trip as they move from one section to the other, the overlying condition causes one section to be raised thereby making it angular rather than planar, and, in addition, one section can easily tilt with respect to the other to cause the worker to fall off balance.
Normally, the support arms are not very long and therefore there is insufficient room to place the elongated staging sections adjacent one to the other rather than overlying the ends. Furthermore, even if the two sections would be placed adjacent to each other they would no longer be colinear and again would cause safety problems. The worker walking from one section to the other would have to make a dogleg step and, should he neglect to do this, would fall off one section and not get to the next section. Futhermore, it spaces one staging section further away from the wall than the other section.
Accordingly, conventionally, there is no satisfactory way to interconnect two elongated staging sections in a safe and easy manner.